1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer which performs printing by transporting a liquid to a recording medium such as a recording paper, and a transferring body which transfers a liquid droplet of the liquid to the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among printers which perform printing on a recording medium such as a recording paper by discharging an ink droplet from a nozzle, there is a printer in which the ink droplet from the nozzle is adhered to a transferring body once, and then the ink droplet adhered to the transferring body is transferred to a recording medium. For example, in an image recording apparatus (printer) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-291275, a plurality of lyophilic ink-philic parts (lyophilic areas), having a wettability (having low liquid repellent property) for ink, on a surface of a transferring drum (transferring body) to which the ink is adhered, are arranged in the form of a lattice, and an ink-phobic part (liquid repellent area) which does not have wettability for the ink (having high liquid repellent property) is formed in an area other than the area in which the ink-philic parts are formed. Accordingly, even when a position of landing (landing position) of the ink which is discharged from the nozzle is deviated from a desired position on the surface of the transferring drum, the ink is landed at an appropriate position on the surface of the transferring drum since the ink adhered to the ink-phobic part moves to the ink-philic part.
However, in the image recording apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-291275, when an ink droplet larger than the ink-phobic part is adhered, there is a possibility that there is a position shift of an adhering position of a portion of the ink droplet which protrudes from (sticks out of) the ink-philic part. On the other hand, when an ink droplet smaller than the ink-philic part is adhered, there is a possibility that there is a position shift of an adhering position of the ink droplet within the ink-philic part. Due to such a position shift of the adhering position of the ink droplet, there is a possibility that in a case of performing a liquid droplet gradation in which the printing is performed by discharging ink droplets of a plurality of types of inks having mutually different volumes, the printing quality is declined.